eBooks

Is sugar “toxic” in any amount—even in natural sweeteners? Are artificial sweeteners safe? What about stevia and xylitol? Cut through the confusion and hype and find out which sweeteners are safe for you and your family.

Are common additives to food and supplements like soy lecithin, carrageenan, xanthum gum, and magnesium stearate harmful–or harmless? Read this eBook to find out which ingredients you should be concerned about, and which are safe.

An estimated 20 million Americans have thyroid disorders, but more than half don’t know it. Find out why thyroid problems are so often mis-diagnosed, what really causes them, and how to heal them naturally.

Research suggests that healing your gut may be the single most important thing you can do to improve your health. In this eBook, you’ll learn how to optimize your gut health—and by extension, your overall health—with simple diet and lifestyle changes.

What do memory loss, depression, anxiety, fatigue, nerve pain, and infertility have in common? They can all be caused by B12 deficiency. Find out why B12 deficiency is more common than most doctors think, how to know if you’re deficient, and what to do about it.

Does eating cholesterol and saturated fat really cause heart disease? Are statin drugs as effective as we’re told? Find out what the latest research says in this eBook, and learn how to prevent and treat heart disease naturally.

The Paleo diet has the potential to dramatically improve your health—but the transition doesn’t always go smoothly. In this eBook, you’ll learn the three biggest obstacles to Paleo success, and how to overcome them.

The Roundup

Here is The Roundup, Edition 6, bringing you the best from around the web from the past two weeks!

Blast from the Past

Last week, Forbes.com described how the journal Nature admonished Walter Willett, a leading nutrition and epidemiology researcher at the Harvard school, for being biased against scientists who reach different conclusions than he does. Specifically, they focused on his criticism of the recent study by Katherine Flegal and colleagues demonstrating that being slightly overweight may actually be protective. While this study suggests that decades of advice to avoid even modest weight gain may be misguided, and that a little bit of extra weight is particularly beneficial for older adults, Willett called the study “rubbish” and not worth reading. Many obesity experts and health biostatisticians take issue with the harsh tone of Willett’s statements, and as one of the most frequently quoted academic sources on nutrition in the news media, Willett’s opinion holds significant weight with the public. Unfortunately, Willett tends to argue against any scientific research that contradicts the public health recommendations he, and the nutrition department at Harvard, have made.

In February, I wrote an article describing the various explanations that could account for the protective effect of overweight seen in various studies, including the meta-analysis that Willett took such issue with. While obesity is not a desirable state of health, it’s worth noting that if you’re living a health-promoting lifestyle but still carrying around a few extra pounds, you might be healthier than popular media would lead you to believe.

What’s ironic about Willett’s criticism of Flegal’s study is that a research team he led recently published a study that generated huge controversy when its conclusions were retracted at the last minute by the publicity team at Harvard’s teaching hospital. The data were so weak and unsupportive of Willet’s claims that the paper was rejected by six journals before it was finally accepted by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, where Willett is a member of the editorial board (as pointed out in the Forbes.com article). Regardless of whether Willett is right or wrong in his criticism of Flegal’s study, publicly blasting another researcher for drawing unfounded conclusions from their data seems a little out of line given his own recent experience.

Research Report

A review in the British Medical Journal supports the theory that the flu vaccine might be less beneficial and less safe than has been claimed. I’ve spoken about the issues with the flu vaccine on one of my podcasts.

A new study shows that the low FODMAP diet improves gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. For more information about FODMAPs, check out this article I wrote on the subject.

Worth A Look

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, needs support to help fund research on nutrient dense traditional diets at his lab at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Categories

I didn’t see anything in the NYT article “Breeding the Nutrition Out of Our Food” about “GMO technology” — only about breeding and hybridization. These are not the same as GM, which is much more recent. Before I followed your link I thought to myself that “how GMO technology has bred the nutrition out” was a peculiar phrasing, as GM and breeding are distinct.

I am loving your roundups, Chris. If it’s not too burdensome when you are drafting them, can you have the hyperlinks to the articles you suggest pop up in a new window instead of opening up in the window where your post resides? I keep losing you when I go down the rabbit hole.

Speaking as someone who went through the academic research rabbit hole, researchers bad-mouthing other researchers simply because their results conflict is not a new or uncommon thing. Spats between researchers frequently are based more on personalities and turf-wars than they are on the quality of the research being debated.